Starting Points
by JtAhSa
Summary: A little snippet of Branch and Poppy's first interactions as children and the beginnings of their feelings for each other.
1. Chapter 1

She was beautiful. He had always been struck by that realization since the day he had first seen her. Grandma Rosiepuff had always reminded him how on the day the new princess was presented he had been instantly awed.

 _The queen had finally had her baby. It was a girl. A princess for the trolls. King Peppy was bursting with both joy and a deep seated fear. His Poppy was beautiful, but the bergens would surely take her. He knew it was imperative to act_. _The escape tunnel had to be finished. Quickly. So he called his people together to meet their princess. Each troll would line up and get a chance to greet their new young monarch._

" _Grandma! I'm bored! Why do we have to be here?" a four year old Branch whined. "Oh Branch," Rosiepuff answered with laughter "Princess Poppy will one day be our leader! Don't you want to say hi to her?" Branch looked at his grandmother with confusion. "She won't even know I said hi Grandma. She's only a day old. I'd rather be singing." She laughed loudly at his innocence. "You'll understand eventually Brach." It was their turn. They'd been slowly moving up the line to the cradle placed in front of the thrones. Branch sighed and walked to peer over the edge with his grandma, placing the flower headband they'd made on the growing pile of modest gifts. He stopped. Feeling as if he'd lost all the air in his lungs. Rosiepuff smiled at the young royal and glanced down at her beloved grandson. Only to see the most loving and awed look on his little face. "Branch?" She said curiously "What do you think of our young princess?" He blinked and glanced up at her briefly before refocusing on the pink trolling. "She's beautiful Grandma." Rosiepuff felt her heart swell with affection. "Yes, she is. Isn't she?" she said softly leading her grandson away._

The king had given an empowered speech after. Encouraging his workers to push hard to finished the tunnel. He himself went down to labor with his people every day, working towards their freedom. But despite all of their motivation and hard work, the tunnel took close to two more years to finish. In that time the queen had been taken. So had grandma Rosiepuff. And Branch, he had lost his colors.

He sighed as he watched the other trollings play, Poppy scampering amongst the other children. She was 9 now, and he was 13. None of the other trolls liked him though. Different, strange, scaredy cat. They have a lot of names for him. _That's ok though._ He thought to himself. _I have my bunker. As long as I can get enough supplies I'll be fine._ He began walking back to his hide out. Doing his best to ignore the lonely clench in his chest.

Poppy watched him leave. Wondering why the grey troll hadn't joined their game. She saw him watching a lot, but he always left soon after. _He looks so lonely…_ At that moment, she resolved to befriend him and banish that lonely look from his face. She raced home that night to her father. _Daddy always knows what to do_ "Daddy!" she exclaimed as she burst into their pod. King Peppy looked up, startled by the urgency in his daughter's voice. "The grey troll! Branch! I'm gonna be his friend… but I don't know how." She said, her distress becoming more pronounced. Peppy felt himself relax and a smile take over. "Poppy, do you know what the other youngsters say about Branch?" he asked her. A frown pronounced on her face, she replied "They say he's weird and mean… but Daddy, when I see him… I just wanna help him – he seems so sad." Peppy could have burst from pride. "You're going to be a great Queen one day Poppy. You'll find in life – that many times when a troll is mean it's because they themselves are hurting. Branch is indeed very sad and I'm sure he's very lonely too. What do you think would be the best solution?" Peppy asked his daughter. Poppy thought for a moment "Well I don't know why he's sad, but if he's lonely too I can include him! That's something I can fix!" she exclaimed excitedly. Peppy gave his girl a soft smile, proud of her determination. It wasn't something trolls usually possessed outside of having fun. "I think that's a wonderful idea Poppy." The king said as his daughter scattered scrapbooking supplies throughout the pod. "Thanks Daddy!" she replied as she began the most important invitation she'd ever made.

As it was, it turned out to be the most important invitation of both her life and Branch's.

Branch sighed sadly as he gathered moss for his bunker. He was feeling especially lonely today. Not that he bothered going to the village, they didn't want him there anyways. "Branch!" a loud, familiar voice shouted through the clearing. He felt his heart speed up. "Poppy?" he asked bewildered as she burst through the tree line. "What are you doing way out here?" She slid to a stop in front of him, suddenly looking bashful. "I wanted to give you something." The princess replied shyly. _Give him something? What could she possibly want to give him?_ He thought to himself as his heart warmed. "What's that?" he asked. She pulled an invitation out of her hair and handed it to him while staring at the ground. His heart stopped. No one had invited him to anything since he'd turned grey. He opened it, feeling fireworks go off in his chest as he took in how much time she must have put into it. **You're Invited to Poppy's Birthday Bash!** It proudly exclaimed. Showing a grey Branch figure hugging a pink Poppy. He was touched. He looked up to her hopeful face and couldn't find it within him to say something cruel. "I don't like parties… But, thank you." He told her with a genuine smile walking away.

Poppy froze, his smile, she'd never seen it before… He was so handsome. She'd always been too distracted by his colors and scowl to notice before. But now she definitely had. And her heart was singing. By the time she'd gotten over her shock at her own thoughts, he was gone.

Branch set the invitation down on his shelf. Touching it gently as the emotions he was feeling rolled inside of him putting a smile on his face. He loved her. The smile faded as he realized that was not a good development. Everyone he loved got killed because of him. He'd do his best to keep her at a distance from now on… But, a traitorous part of him hoped she would keep trying.


	2. Chapter 2

Branch sighed wearily as he sat down next to the lake to rest. He'd been gathering supplies for a few hours now and his muscles were aching. _It's so hot today_ he thought as sweat dripped down the side of his face. He wiped it away with a huff of aggravation, staring at the lake with contemplation. He glanced around – there was no one else to be seen. He was a ways into the forest and all the other trolls preferred to stick closely together. Grinning at the solitude he threw his vest onto the ground and jumped into the lake shorts and all. He surfaced with a gasp – the water was the perfect solution. He felt instantly rejuvenated. Letting out a deep breath through his nose he relaxed for once and floated peacefully on his back in the water.

Poppy and the snack pack were on a hike. And they were all questioning it. "It's so hot!" exclaimed Suki "Why on earth did we go _hiking_ of all things? I don't even like hiking!" the other trolls giggled at her playful frustration. Creek spoke up "Poppy wanted to – and I think I know why." He stated with a sly look to the teen troll. Poppy felt her heart drop. He couldn't know could he? That she wanted to come out this way because Branch foraged for supplies quite often in this area and she was hoping to spot her six year crush and running. "You do?" she squeaked, feeling the blush burn in her cheeks. "Of course!" Creek replied. "It's the hottest day yet this summer and there's a beautiful little pond this way!" he finished excitedly. Poppy felt the relief wash through her as her friends exclaimed about her cleverness. "Poppy! That's genius!" Biggie exclaimed. "Yeah!" Suki agreed suddenly revived. "We haven't been there for a couple of months!" added Cooper "We should jump in from that tree like last time! Let's go!" Everyone started out again with much more enthusiasm. Poppy could only feel grateful none of them had thought to question if this had been her actual motive in coming out today and followed along happily. Climbing up their favorite tree after her friends they carefully navigated onto the branch that extended just barely over the small pond. The drop wasn't too bad – about 4 apples high. Poppy focused on her footing as she passed through the foliage to her fellow 15 year olds - only to see them seemingly frozen, looking down towards the pond in shock. _What are they…._ She felt the world stutter as she followed their gazes down to a well-muscled and very shirtless troll that had just climb out of the pond. _Oh my_ Poppy thought – only to realized she'd said it out loud. Suki, Smidge, Satin, and Chenille all voiced their agreement. "I've never noticed how _buff_ he is!" Whispered Satin in awe – her eyes firmly glued onto the grey specimen below. "He's… he's hot!" Suki said sounding a little distressed "Why is he mean if he's hot?" she wailed quietly. Poppy felt jealousy rear its head before she was distracted by Branch walking under their hiding spot where he had apparently thrown his vest. Poppy leaned over to keep him in her sights… Only to slip. She more felt the surprised squeal leave her lips than heard it. Branch's keen ears however picked up the sound instantly. He looked up sharply only to see the love of his life coming straight at him. His eyes widened as his arms instinctively came up to catch her. He grunted and stumbled to the side at the sudden weight in his arms.

Poppy felt him catch her. _Oh thank goodness! That would have hurt – I need to thank… He's still shirtless._ Her mind fumbled as her crush addled brain tried to jump start but keep failing at the sight of his muscled chest. "Um Poppy?" Branch started, feeling fireworks going off in his chest at having her cradled in his arms "Are you ok?" Pink eyes met blue. And the electricity should have been visible for how thick it was "Yeah." She said breathlessly "I'm great."

"Now _that_ was genius." Smidge said "Wish I'd thought of it." The other girls all nodded in agreement looking longingly at their best friend who was still nestled in the grey troll's arms. Creek watched the intensity between his princess and rival with an angry feeling exploding within him. "Stop that." He bit out "this is Branch we're talking about." He spun on his heel and began the climb down – intent on breaking up this moment and having everyone, Poppy especially, forget about it. He didn't get the chance to interrupt though.

"Oh that's good!" Branch said his cheeks dark as he finally realized he should have put her down ages ago. He hastily set her down onto her feet, ignoring the twinge as he let her go. "Nice seeing you, but I gotta go!" he grabbed his vest and bolted, forgetting in the hailstorm of emotion that he had been going out of his way to be rude to her.

Poppy once again was left staring after him, smiling and hugging herself in delight. _Maybe… maybe he likes me too_ she thought. And her determination came back tenfold as she watched the blushing troll scramble away.


End file.
